The Charge

Sister Veronica: Well, Mr. Walker, you are a splendid mechanic. This car has
not run well since I left the convent. Dr. Richard Kimble: This car isn't
running, Sister. It's looking for a quiet place to die.

Opening Statement

Dr. Richard Kimble can never stop running. Even if his seasons get split in
to two releases separated by many months, Kimble cannot stop. In Season One,
Volume Two of CBS's hit '60s television thriller The Fugitive, Dr.
Kimble continues his search for the man who killed his wife; although it doesn't
have as many four-star episodes as the first half of the season, this release
packs plenty of suspense.

Facts of the Case

Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) was wrongly convicted for killing his
wife. Now, after escaping a train wreck, Kimble is on the run, searching for the
one-armed man who he thinks committed the murder. While on the hunt, Kimble is
simultaneously being chased across the country by the unrelenting Lt. Gerard
(Barry Morse, who passed away just last February), who will stop at nothing to
uphold the rule of law—whether it was correct or not.

This release is the second half of The Fugitive's first season. The
first volume of the show was released in August, 2007.

Disc Three • "Flight from the Final
Demon" • "Taps for a Dead War"
• "Somebody to Remember" • "Never
Stop Running"

Disc Four • "The Homecoming"
• "Storm Center" • "The End
Game"

The Evidence

The first half of this season, which I had the pleasure of reviewing last
August, simply blew me away. Each episode has Dr. Kimble getting in one bad
situation after another as he roamed from town to town in search of the
one-armed man. That first volume ended with an episode that could have certainly
been the season finale: Kimble returns to his old home and reunites with his
father only to find Gerard there as well. Now the second half of the show's
landmark first season is available, and I'd say it almost lives up to the
previous volume.

The first episode in the set, "The Garden House," plunks Kimble
down on a news mogul's farm as a handyman. It's not always clear how these jobs
are helping Kimble track the one-armed man, but you can rest assured that no
matter what he's doing, trouble will find him. Once he's finished there, Kimble
moves on to "Come Watch Me Die," which shakes up the episodic nature
of the show: Kimble finds himself being deputized after becoming tangled up in a
posse hunting a young murderer. From there he moves to Reno, Nevada to work as a
pool boy for Telly Savalas (Kojak). Oddly enough, the first three episodes in
this volume are completely devoid of Lt. Gerard. Instead, Kimble just continues
to get recognized as a fugitive—an occurrence that seems to happen more
often in this volume than the first.

Finally, Lt. Gerard shows up in one of the best episodes of the set,
"Search in a Windy City." Here, Kimble returns home to Chicago and
seeks out the help of a gossip columnist to help him catch the one-armed man.
Not only does Kimble actually find the murderer, but Gerard comes dangerously
close to catching Kimble.

This episode is a good example of this season's pacing. The show's episode
list is, rather ingeniously, lightly peppered with these extremely close calls
between Kimble and Gerard. These episodes are usually the best of the bunch, but
only because they are infrequent. Most of the time Kimble is hanging around
other low-lifes, or meeting other people who have been "wrongly
accused" at some point in their lives. Those episodes are all pretty good,
but ones like "Search in a Windy City," "Somebody to
Remember" and "The End Game" are the reason to watch.

Volume Two also features a two-part story, "Angels Travel on Lonely
Roads," which finds Kimble traveling through the Rocky Mountains with a
nun. These two episodes address a fundamental issue in the series, that of
Kimble's faith. Dr. Kimble has always been a logical, scientific man, but when
he travels in a beat-up jalopy with a sharp-tongued Catholic nun, the other side
of his character begins to develop. In fact, throughout this latter half of the
first season, Kimble's character becomes more three-dimensional and clever. The
audience gets to learn more about the inner turmoil he's experiencing, without
the narrator simply telling us.

The actual season finale, "The End Game," is right alongside
"Windy City" as being one of the best in this volume. This finale is
unique in that Kimble doesn't actually make an appearance, let alone speak,
until almost the end of the first act. Instead, the audience views the episode
from the perspective of Lt. Gerard, who is right on the tail of the good doctor.
Eventually, the perspective shifts back over to Kimble, who finds himself
trapped in a house with two elderly gentlemen arguing over his innocence. It's a
great episode that puts Kimble right on the brink of being caught, only to free
him in time to set up the second season.

Each episode, whether it's the nail-biting Gerard ones or simply a diversion
from the one-armed man, is brimming with tension and suspense. This is due
almost solely to the incredible acting of David Janssen, who continues to play
Kimble as an awkward, overly intelligent realist who barely feels comfortable in
his own skin (mainly because his skin goes by a different name every episode).
Barry Morse, who plays the cold, devoted Gerard, is a wonderful foil for
Janssen. Morse really gets to stretch his legs in "The End Game" and
show how meticulous and even demented he can be—he doesn't give a damn
that the entire city is without protection because he's using every last
policemen to hunt Kimble.

Like Volume One, this release has excellent video quality thanks to
Paramount's work remastering the show from its original negatives. The blacks
are very rich and crisp, and there is very little flicker with the darker grays.
The sound is equally good, even if it's only in Dolby Digital Mono. The
Fugitive is set to an incredible score, mainly by Pete Rugolo and Dominic
Frontiere, that fills every scene. A technically great package for such an old
show.

Sadly, like the previous release, there are no special features to be found
in the set. The four-disc set comes in the same case as the first volume, which
holds all of the discs in a standard DVD pack.

Closing Statement

If you purchased, and loved, the first volume of this classic television
show, you'll certainly want to pick up the second volume…which I imagine
is what Paramount was thinking when it split it up in to two releases. Volume
Two offers more of the same tension, suspense, and man-hunting action of the
first volume, although it doesn't end as strongly. Still it completes what is a
fantastic first season of a show that still holds up to this day.

The Verdict

GUILTY of being the second half of the first season of The
Fugitive…and rocking!